Trump used his reinstated Facebook page to post a misinformation-filled statement in response to his indictment, and it's already racking up interactions
After 90 minutes, the post had already earned nearly 100,000 interactions — the top post from political pages in the last 24 hours
Update (3/31/23): After 21 hours, the post has earned approximately 285,000 interactions (212,000 reactions, 47,000 comments, and 26,000 shares).
After news broke that a Manhattan grand jury had voted to indict former President Donald Trump for paying hush money to Stormy Daniels, Trump posted a full copy of his statement to his newly reinstated Facebook page. While right-wing media predictably raged at the news, Trump’s post rapidly racked up interactions on the platform, drawing nearly 100,000 within 90 minutes.
Trump's Facebook post 90 minutes after it was initially posted
On January 25, two years after Trump was suspended for inciting violence on January 6, 2021, Meta announced that the company would be reinstating his accounts on its platforms. In deciding that Trump could return, the company determined that “the risk to public safety,” which it set out as the measure for ending his ban, has “sufficiently receded” — a flawed assessment given Trump’s history of pushing dangerous misinformation. The accounts were ultimately restored on February 9, with Trump posting on Facebook again on March 17 and running ads again on March 18.
In terms of interaction numbers, Trump's indictment-response post is second only to his original announcement after he returned to the platform. According to CrowdTangle, the post has earned more interactions than any other post from news and politics pages in the last 24 hours.
Like many of Trump’s posts made prior to his suspension (and the posts he continued to make on Truth Social during that time), the statement contains numerous allegations of supposed wrongdoing against him by Democrats and others — similar to the false election claims that helped spur the events of January 6.
Trump also posted the statement to Truth Social, marking yet another occasion when he has shared content across the platforms. For instance, Media Matters reported earlier that in the last two days, Trump’s Facebook page has run 62 ads that featured his Truth Social posts — meaning Meta is profiting from them.
